


Winter Beasts

by DevinePhoenix



Category: Bleach, Temeraire - Naomi Novik
Genre: Alternate Universe - Dragons, Gen, UraIchi Prompt Challenge #5, no beta we die like men
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-30
Updated: 2020-12-30
Packaged: 2021-03-11 04:42:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,944
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28439328
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DevinePhoenix/pseuds/DevinePhoenix
Summary: Before he even hatched, Ichigo decided that he didn't like humans. but he did like that one egg that was his neighbour.In which, rather than pairbonding to a human captain, two dragonets bond with each other instead.
Relationships: Kurosaki Ichigo & Urahara Kisuke
Comments: 15
Kudos: 226
Collections: UraIchi Prompt Challenge #5





	Winter Beasts

**Author's Note:**

> I procrastinated so much that I wrote this in much less time than I'm comfortable with. I didn't review it AT ALL so enjoy the wordsalad.
> 
> I don't actually remember an awful lot about the Temeraire books so I could just be exaggerating how awful the dragon working conditions were. It might be mildly bashing of their aerial corps? Just view it as an AU where they're much worse about controlling the dragons.

Ichigo hatched on a cold winter morning, much like any dragon hatched in the covert. Quiet and polite and easily acquiescing to the rider the Aerial Corps picked for him. Good and obedient, an excellent hatchling.

This was a lie.

It was a well-known fact that dragons heard and learnt about the world through their shells. Ichigo was very, very good at it. He learned about the world far more that the Aerial Corps wanted him too. He wasn’t laid in the controlled environment of the Breeding Grounds or even the Covert. He was laid far away when his mother was on assignment.

His parents were…ill matched to say the least. Isshin was a mid-weight Japanese breed that was in England for a treaty. Misaki was a lightweight English courier that ran messages between the Japanese Ambassador party and the English Government. Isshin was from one of Japan’s seven dragon king breeds and Misaski’s Winchester breed was common as mud.

No human had wanted them to mate and muddy bloodlines, but they did. It could be seen as an attempt of linetheft on England’s part but Isshin’s breed wasn’t one of the specialized ones (like firebreathers or acidspitters) where such a thing would matter. Eventually humans and duty tore them apart before Ichigo even hatched. England only escaped penalty of attempted line theft because the Japanese group was almost certain that Ichigo’s egg would not hatch at all because of how incompatible his parents were.

Before he was born, Ichigo decided that he didn’t like humans.

But he knew that outright resistance would get him nowhere. Dragons that didn’t obey were useless to the humans and quickly chained and locked away within the breeding grounds for being _feral_.

One of the couriers carrying his egg to the covert told him all about the Aviator Covert and the life that awaited him. Ichigo thought it sounded horrifying. He never knew if that courier told him out of his own bitterness or if he just didn’t understand how badly he was being mistreated. They were worked like dogs until they died, forced to breed for the human’s convenience and suffered indignities all for the sake of a human they bonded with at birth. Ichigo did not understand that devotion and he didn’t want to.

It doesn’t matter though, because he was delivered to the covert, still in the egg to be an addition to the air force when he was born.

There were other eggs there. They couldn’t communicate very well with each other. The communication when in the egg was mostly one way except for those who had already developed some vocal chords. Even so, they were only capable of short bursts of dragonspeak at a frequency humans couldn’t hear. Most of the eggs were quiet and boring. A few were very enthusiastic about their future humans. Those hatched soon and were quickly taken away. Ichigo didn’t like them. Those were the ones who had been constantly visited and talked to by humans ever since they were conscious. The glory and duty and partnership were all they were told about until they couldn’t imagine a life without it.

Ichigo wondered how many of those dragons would actually make it to breeding age and how many would die in war before that.

Aviators came to speak to him too, spitting the same spiel all the other eggs were told. But Ichigo wasn’t stupid, he had already heard far too much in the outside to trust them now.

Ichigo liked the egg next to him best. They must’ve been sorted according to when they were expected to hatch because they developed the ability for speech around the same time. Before that, the egg would hum soft and low in a haunting little song. Ichigo learnt to hum back, just for them.

When they could talk, with limited words and subvocal voices, spark-shine-curiosity was full of questions. Ichigo was happy to answer, sharing the languages and the things he had heard in the outside world. Spark-shine-curiousity ate it all up with voracious speed, he (For they were a he) wanted to know everything and learn everything. The outside world wouldn’t be very kind to a dragon who wanted to learn. It wouldn’t be kind to Ichigo either with his growing hatred of authority. They were two outcasts and couldn’t help but become friends.

Ichigo told him his name, given to him by his mother before they were separated. Most dragons weren’t given names until they hatched and spark-shine-curiousity was no different. Ichigo eventually named him at his request, ‘Kisuke’ for Happiness.

When they were ready to hatch, the shells grown tight and confining, Kisuke held still until Ichigo’s shell was ready too. They wanted to stay together even through hatching, there was no telling how they’d be separated otherwise.

The humans make lots of noise but Ichigo was only focused on Kisuke’s pants of effort as he forced his own shell open. It was slow going and hard work and they had to stop a few times to catch their breath. Ichigo felt quite a lot of spiteful joy at making the humans wait.

The first look was usually important. A human who could be the first thing in the dragonet’s sight when they opened their eyes had a slightly better chance at being chosen. It was only slight, but they usually scrambled for the advantage.

Ichigo didn’t even see the humans gathered around, he turned his head towards the breaths of his companion and opened his eyes for the first time. The first thing he saw was Kisuke, pale straw gold in the dimmed light of the hatching area with green eyes that locked with his.

They pick a “captain” for appearance’s sake, the least annoying of the bunch, but part of their hearts is always attached to each other. The same all-consuming bond they are supposed to have to a human is something that has misfired and latched on to each other instead.

Thankfully, their captains are good friends, so they’re allowed to stay with each other. Their captains aren’t bad people but it’s hard to become devoted to them when the endgame will see both of them at war for a nation and people they have no attachment to.

The Aviators aren’t any better than the dragons, they march along to the theme of ‘duty’. But the Aviators have a choice. They chose to fight. As a dragon, they can only fight or be sent to the breeding programs. Ichigo’s heritage was muddy so there would be no way he’d be allowed to breed, so if he didn’t fight there was a chance he’d be culled to conserve resources. It was wartime and they couldn’t afford to waste resources on a dragon that wouldn’t fight and couldn’t breed more soldiers.

They didn’t even know what breed to call him. He had his father’s size, a combination of his mother’s gray, his father’s blue-black and some stripes of bizarre orange. Kisuke on the other hand was a slightly smaller midweight Yellow Reaper from a little mix blooded breeding.

They start small but they grow at a furious rate, learning to fly, to hunt and hide. They don’t speak about it out loud, but they want to run away to where they can decide their own fate. Many of the dragons in the covert don’t have that same yearning for freedom, they don’t have to ask to know. But the eggs they shared a hatching room with have spent long months next to Ichigo and Kisuke’s heretical conversations. They know there’s other options now, something beyond what the aviators tell them. They’re still in that stage of life where they absorb knowledge and language like a sponge.

Ichigo wants to leave but doesn’t know where they could go where they wouldn’t be hunted down. Kisuke learns to read maps and watches the human’s weapons and air crews and whispers to Ichigo at night about how to tear them to pieces in one blow. Their captains do sit by their courtyard and read but books are not something given to dragons. Perhaps if they let Kisuke read and study and learn, he would’ve been content in the Covert and Ichigo in turn would’ve been content to stay with him. But Kisuke was stifled and smothered. Expected to merely fly formations and do as he’s told like a dumb animal.

They try to keep dragons in harness for as much as possible so they get so used to it they feel naked without it. To Ichigo, whose wings joints in unusual places and can maneuver like a hellion, the straps feel like chains. Combat dragons with crews don’t fly like he does. They try to make them fly steady so that the riflemen can get steady shots.

Ichigo twists and drops and spirals in patterns that would make any crewman sick, if not fly straight off his back. He’s scolded for it constantly, but he doesn’t take it on. If they want to fly all steady and predictable to fight with pellets that merely stop skin deep, that’s up to them. But Ichigo likes to fight with all the clawed fury of a feral dragon. In some ways, he actually is a feral dragon. His attachment to his captain is miniscule after all.

Kisuke, as always, is the one with the plan. He’s far seeing in ways dragons normally are not and can lay out the proper actions to guarantee their future.

It’s a heist of elegant proportions.

Or it would’ve been if a raid of French dragons hadn’t dropped on the Covert in the middle of the night and Kisuke hadn’t immediately switched the plans to take advantage of it.

Under the shadow of the French raid, they make off with six eggs, three sheep and four chickens. Their destination was a small forgotten island made up of sheer cliffs and a wide grassy plateau north-east of Britain. The live animals seem to like the wide grassy reaches well enough and there’s enough space for a dozen dragons to live, much less two midweights and half-a-dozen eggs. Though the weather was cold, windy and rainy, it was easy to keep the eggs warm tucked under their bellies. Of course, because Kisuke was at heart an innovative kind of dragon, he dug up an entire shipwreck to turn upside down and use as a shelter. A fire lit with driftwood is enough to keep the area warm and dry for the eggs.

For the most part they ate whatever they could fish and left the chickens to multiply and the sheep to grow wool they shaved off for nest padding. It rained enough that there was always fresh water to be had. Kisuke built things at his leisure, studying the sky or waves or wood before starting to make things. Ichigo followed along with bemusement and lifted heavy things for him. They both took up swimming as there was a wealth of resources to be found on the ocean floor, shipwrecks and heavy stones that could be used for building. Other close by islands were also useful for raiding soil and trees to replant and extra fodder for the animals. It was easy to avoid human ships too since the rough waters made their section of sea avoided like the plague. With the amount of shipwrecks they found underneath the waves, there was good reason for it too.

Before they knew it, winter had rolled back around again and a full year had passed since they hatched together in early winter. They had moved beyond the shelter of the old boat, because it was getting small to a house built with its remains. Kisuke had made foundation and walls with the materials he had to make a cozy living space to keep out the effects of winter. The cold didn’t affect them at all, but the eggs and future hatchlings were more fragile.

For the winter months they soared highs and fast in gale force winds to plunder from villages and ships in the dead of the night. More than supplies, they needed books and knowledge so Kisuke could continue to learn. His inventions were fine but it was frustrating to guess at building practices and animal husbandry when the knowledge was already known and available. (Kisuke carries a grudge over the first hut that fell over because he didn’t know that foundations were a thing)

They raid under the cover of winter and bring back all the literature they can carry. The rest of winter is spent cozied up with the flock of chickens, devouring the books.

In early spring, the first pair of stolen eggs hatched. They were a pair of female Winchesters, probably siblings from how similar their markings were. One is sullen and violent and the other is bright and cheerful. Ichigo adores them like his own siblings and they eventually chose Japanese names to match his to show that they’re family.

Ichigo doesn’t ask but by now he was certain that Kisuke had run off with several eggs key to England’s future breeding programs. They should’ve been hunted down ferociously by every Aerial Unit in the Corps. But there was a war going on, even with the catastrophic loss of dragon eggs, they didn’t have the manpower to do full searching sweeps. Their spit of rock wasn’t in English waters anyway. It was closer to Sweden’s territory. They had only taken the more developed eggs with thoughts and opinions of their own so it was no surprise that the next year was full of hatchings for all the eggs.

They had a little colony of eight dragons, none older than two years. Four of the eggs were lightweight breeds, one was another midweight and the youngest was an absolute steal of a heavyweight. Not a steal because he was a heavyweight but because he was a fucking _longwing_.

Ichigo and Kisuke stole a _longwing_.

As in, the most important breed of dragon in all of England. Their sole Acidspitting breed. The kind of dragon that entire squads were built around protecting. The equivalent of a battleship or destroyer. It was a god damn miracle they hadn’t been run down with the entire force of the air force.

As the longwing, Tessai, told it, he had no interest in spitting acid day after day, after year, after century until he could no longer taste and had acid burns in his own throat from overuse. It was one thing to be a fighting beast and another to know they could be tied to the role for nearly _two centuries_ of constant fighting. What kind of life was that? Tessai’s dam had barely been able to speak to him in the egg, her throat heavily damaged. Her one wish for her child was that he never was forced to damage his throat like she had. She had burned herself out for her human captain who like all longwing captains, died in a far too short time. Dragons were known to live long and Longwings were noted to outlive at least four generations of captains. They were a species well acquainted with heartbreak. Tessai wanted no part in it.

One of the hatchlings was a Grey Widowmaker. A legitimate pureblooded Widowmaker. Not as panic inducing as Tessai but Widowmakers were nearly extinct because humans had bred their good traits into other lines and then deemed the Widowmaker itself to be too wild and feral to be worth breeding. The fact Yoruichi was alive was nothing less than a miracle. If the covert had known what kind of egg she was, it might’ve been smashed.

The other midweight was a tricky Bright Copper that took unholy enjoyment in shoving his entire self into Ichigo and Kisuke’s cuddle pile. He was a snarky old bastard, the kind of own-way dragon that would’ve been firmly ‘broken-in’ by the Covert. He couldn’t fly as wildly as Ichigo but he was very good at dizzying spirals and turns that could disorient other dragons.

The last lightweight was a Greyling, a dragon that could spend days aloft like an albatross. Aizen did like the quiet peace of hours aloft in the blue sky but he liked it better when Ichigo would always fly up to bring him down. No one mentioned to the hybrid that it should be impossible for a ‘Winchester’ to fly that high. Aizen was too full of pride to accept orders from a lifeform he saw as inferior. If he was left in the covert, it would’ve been a bloodbath. Perhaps not immediately but certainly after a few years as he laid pieces in place to engineer some sort of mass disaster.

They lived together in an ever-increasing number of buildings, growing fat on fish and chicken. Most of the others preferred more physical pastimes, like Yoruichi’s racing or Aizen’s long hours seeing how high in the atmosphere he could go but that wasn’t all they did. Karin liked math, Yuzu liked cooking, Aizen liked poetry, Ichigo liked Shakespare and literature, Tessai liked art, Shinji liked mystery novels.

Things were peaceful but not all things remain so. There was a war going on. Ichigo and Kisuke had stolen a highly precious bloodline and made off with eight fighting beasts. There would be a reckoning eventually. They were prepared. There were boltholes and secondary bases and rumours spoken to feral dragons to carry tales to the dragons imprisoned in the breeding grounds. There was unrest brewing right under the surface.

And at the center was Ichigo and Kisuke’s homebrewed rebellion.

**Author's Note:**

> feel free to roast me about any errors you see. I really didn't beta it lol.  
> Knowing me I'll probably clean it up much later at my own leisure.


End file.
